An array of scientific evidence suggest that in some cases, the bacteria in your gut–your microbiome–could be tied to neurological and psychological disorders and differences, from anxiety and autism to Parkinson's and schizophrenia. The journal Science published a survey of the field and the Cambridge, Massachusetts start-up Holobiome that hopes to use insight into this "psychobiome" to develop treatments for depression, insomnia, and other conditions with a neurological side to them. From Science:

For example, many people with irritable bowel syndrome are also depressed, people on the autism spectrum tend to have digestive problems, and people with Parkinson’s are prone to constipation.

Researchers have also noticed an increase in depression in people taking antibiotics—but not antiviral or antifungal medications that leave gut bacteria unharmed. Last year, Jeroen Raes, a microbiologist at the Catholic University of Leuven, and colleagues analyzed the health records of two groups—one Belgian, one Dutch—of more then 1000 people participating in surveys of their types of gut bacteria. People with depression had deficits of the same two bacterial species, the authors reported in April 2019 in Nature Microbiology.

Researchers see ways in which gut microbes could influence the brain. Some may secrete messenger molecules that travel though the blood to the brain. Other bacteria may stimulate the vagus nerve, which runs from the base of the brain to the organs in the abdomen. Bacterial molecules might relay signals to the vagus through recently discovered “neuropod” cells that sit in the lining of the gut, sensing its biochemical milieu, including microbial compounds.

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/08/the-psychobiome-is-bacteri.html

Who is Patrick Mason? I just ran across a few short horror films he wrote and directed, and they're truly scary. Like edge-of-your-seat gasp-out-loud scary. Not only that, but they're beautifully made with good actors, especially Ayuda (see below). The three videos posted here are the ones I've seen so far, but there are more on his site, which I plan to watch tonight. Can't wait to see where this director takes us next.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/08/watch-super-short-horror-film.html

CNBC reports that an aide to Pence has tested positive for COVID-19. This follows yesterday's report that Trump's personal valet tested positive for the virus.

A spokeswoman for Pence did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Pence was scheduled to travel to Des Moines, Iowa, in the morning, but his departure from Andrews Air Force Base was delayed by nearly an hour as staff dealt with news of the diagnosis. Reporters traveling with Pence said several staffers disembarked from Air Force Two just before takeoff.

Photo of Pence: Know Your Meme Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/08/pence-aide-tests-positive-for.html

On his Pluralistic blog, Cory Doctorow writes about a $3 router rebooter. This DIY gadget connects between your home router and its AC outlet. It pings Google periodically and if it doesn't receive a response, it cycles the power on the router to reboot it.

From creator Mike Diamond's website What I Made Today:

How it works In layman's terms, the process is simple. The ESP [ESP8266 01, an  Internet of Things WiFi module board] periodically pings Google through the modem. If it gets a reply, it does nothing; the relay stays closed and the modem stays on.

If the ESP does not get a reply, it will "understand" that the modem is down. When this happens, it turns off the relay, waits 30 seconds, then turns it back on, thus power-cycling the modem.

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/08/3-router-rebooter.html

This Sunday, Weezer will cameo on The Simpsons and as a teaser, the band released their cover of "The Simpsons Theme" by Danny Elfman. From Rolling Stone:

In the new episode of The Simpsons, Weezer will play a cover band called Sailor’s Delight, which serves as the house act on a romantic cruise Homer and Marge are taking. Sailor’s Delight will “perform” a handful of tracks from Weezer’s 2019 self-titled record (also known as The Black Album) and their 2017 effort Pacific Daydream, while the episode will also boast the premiere of the band’s new song, “Blue Dream,” from their upcoming LP, Van Weezer.

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/08/weezer-rocks-the-simpsons-them.html

Jennifer Usellis-Mackay, aka the Klingon Pop Warrior, sings "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" in her native tongue. The performance took place in 2015 at Chicago's iO Theater. From the video description:

Opening for Improvised Star Trek, I sang a new (old) song. Got some newly translated words the day of the performance... enjoy this little slice of nerdiness... or don't.

Vocals - The Klingon Pop Warrior (Jennifer Usellis-Mackay) Guitar - The Red Shirt (Joe Mizzi) Translation - Admiral qurgh (Christopher Lipscombe) Video - Eric Scull

(via r/ObscureMedia) Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/08/watch-this-klingon-perform-s.html

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/08/soap-promises-to-make-you-smel.html

It took hundreds of exposures and a complex method of removing occlusions, but this "lucky" shot is the result: a depiction of the hot regions lurking under Jupiter's uppermost clouds.

The picture was captured in infared by the Gemini North Telescope in Hawaii, and is one of the sharpest observations of the planet ever made from the ground. To achieve the resolution, scientists used a technique called "lucky imaging" which scrubs out the blurring effect of looking through Earth's turbulent atmosphere. This method involves acquiring multiple exposures of the target and only keeping those segments of an image where that turbulence is at a minimum.

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/08/jupiter-looks-pretty-angry-in.html

The Leopards Ate My Face subreddit is dedicated to mocking people who thought the Republican party would hurt their enemies only to be surprised to find that it hurts them, too. Inspired by a tweet by Adrian Bott'I never thought leopards would eat MY face,' sobs woman who voted for the Leopards Eating People's Faces Partyit has now banned posts about people who claimed Covid-19 was bullshit only to die of Covid-19. There are simply too many, and it's getting depressing.

"We've seen a billion of them in the past two weeks and the vast majority of them don't fit the subreddit," writes moderator u/ROBOT_OF_WORLD. "People dying from their decisions isn't justice, karmic, or funny." Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/08/leopards-ate-my-face-subre.html

A couple of days ago, Thomas Dolby posted this video to Twitter and YouTube of a track called "Corona and the Pirate Twins," a spoof of his 1982 hit, "Europa and the Pirate Twins." The song is credited to Dolby Kids. Thomas included the following note:

"This is what my mischievous offspring have been getting up to during the Lockdown."

Here is the original video for "Europa..."

Bonus track:

And here is Thomas Dolby doing a touching home solo version of his achingly beautiful "Screen Kiss" from 1984's Flat Earth. He did it as a tribute to Matthew Seligman, the celebrated bassist who recently died of COVID-19. Seligman played bass on Dolby's recordings, including Flat Earth, and also played for Bowie, Robyn Hitchcock, Peter Murphy, and countless others. He was also a member of the Soft Boys.

Image: YouTube Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/08/in-quarantine-thomas-dolbys.html

Yesterday saw the online premier of a mini-episode of a new animated comic series based on the classic Gilbert Shelton underground comic, the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. As a hippie wannabe teen in the 70s, this (and Zap! Comics) was everything to me.

In 1969, life in San Francisco consists of free love, communal living, and political protest. Freewheelin’ Franklin Freek (Harrelson), Fat Freddy Freekowtski (Goodman), Phineas T. Phreakers (Davidson) and their mischievous, foul-mouthed cat, Kitty (Haddish) spend their days dodging many things —- the draft, the narcs, and steady employment -– all while searching for an altered state of bliss.

But after partaking of a genetically-mutated strain of marijuana, the Freaks wake up 50 years later to discover a much different society. Quickly feeling like fish out of water in a high-tech world of fourth-wave feminism, extreme gentrification and intense political correctness, the Freaks learn how to navigate life in 2020 -— where, surprisingly, their precious cannabis is now legal.

OK, sounds good. But is it? If the reaction to the first mini-episode is any indication, maybe the Freaks should have remained in their drug-induced coma. As one Facbooker commented: "Get yourself a collected set of the original comic and skip this drivel!"

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/08/furry-freak-brothers-coming-th.html

"They sing the song," writes Real Big Boys. "Thanks to the Melni Pinniped Choir for barking."

Previously. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/08/kiss-from-a-rose-performed-by.html

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/07/justice-department-dropping-ca.html

View this post on Instagram

Follow @witloofcollective "Bubbel blind"/"Bubble blind" Inspired by "Meisje met de parel"/"Girl with a pearl" Johannes Vermeer #johannesvermeer #meisjemetdeparel #gettymuseumchallenge #girlwithapearlearring #classicpainting #painting #gif #giphyartist #jocondedunord #vermeer #animatedpainting #jeunefillealaperle #gifart #pearl #perle #art #mauritshuis #witloofcollective

A post shared by Witloof Collective (@witloofcollective) on May 1, 2020 at 1:07pm PDT

The Witloofcollective animates classic paintings. [via JWZ, via @doctorow] Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/07/girl-with-bubble-gum-and-mout.html

In the ultra-competitive, ultra-crowded VPN market, it isn’t easy for a new entrant to distinguish itself. In fact, scores of providers come and go, with many never making much of an impact before slipping into obscurity.

However, Fastest VPN accomplished the feat, securing rave reviews from outlets like TechRadar, who praised FastestVPN for its “lengthy list of appealing features for one of the lowest prices around,” while TenBestVPNs called them "one of the most promising VPN services in the market."

Fastest takes advantage of its server infrastructure, allowing users on its 350 high-speed servers to retain full online protection while facilitating fast connection speeds (hence, the name).

Since security is the bellwether of any VPN provider, Fastest users enjoy military-grade 256-Bit AES encryption utilizing multiple protocols such as OpenVPN, IKEv2, IPSec, OpenConnect, L2TP, and more. Those procedures make your activity virtually invisible to monitoring by cybercriminals or any other online black hats. 

We can’t validate their claims of being the fastest VPN provider on the block, but among their strong selling points are a 99.9 percent uptime rate as well as no speed caps on downloading and uploading files.

As for those features, FastestVPN users get Smart Connect, which routes users to the best server instantly; Smart Tunneling, which pushes select traffic through the VPN automatically even when the app isn’t open; and DNS Leak Protection, which keep your IP protects by plugging any attempts to send your web requests beyond FastestVPN coverage.

Meanwhile, FastestVPN also gets users around regional geo-blocking restrictions that keep content like country-specific Netflix, Amazon Prime or Disney+ streaming accounts accessible from anywhere in the world, while also protecting your connection with ad blocking and malware detection. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/07/fastestvpn-is-a-hot-up-and-com.html

IMGURian @zikikki1 does wonderful “nerdy crochet,” and this Doctor Who 'dalek' is a fantastic example of their work.

I do nerdy crochet

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/07/dalek.html

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/07/right-now-watch-this-rapper-a.html

In Alaska, the Matanuska-Susitna (Mat-Su) Borough School Board voted to pull classic literary works The Great Gastby, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, The Invisible Man, The Things They Carried, and Catch-22 from the approved reading list of elective high school classes. You can read about the board's bullshit "reasoning" here. After many people spoke out about the stupidity, the board agreed to vote later this month on whether to rescind the decision.

Meanwhile, the band Portugal. The Man who are from the area have offered to send copies of the books for free to any student or parent in the district who wants to read them.

"We believe this decision is narrow-minded and un-Patriotic, and we are not OK with it," the band posted to Facebook. "That is why we are putting out a standing offer that if any student/parent in the Mat-Su Borough School District wants a copy of one or more of these books, we will mail them to you. Just hit us up at sticksandstones@portugaltheman.com

(CNN) Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/07/band-offers-to-send-students-c.html

We've been battling pesky pantry moths in our kitchen cupboards. They get into any open container of rice, flour, cereal, chips, nuts, etc. Then they breed in the boxes and bags.

I hate it when I open a cabinet and a couple of moths fly out. It's even worse when I look at a bag of rice, and it is alive with motion.

Lately we've been putting our food into wide-mouth mason jars with these convenient one-piece plastic lids. That has reduced the problem but there are still a few stragglers. So I bought a pack of pantry moth traps. These traps fold into little A-frame houses. The interior is coated with a sticky material that traps the flies. The traps also come with a postage stamp size pheromone lure to fool the pests into thinking a sexy moth is inside waiting for them. These things work well. After using them for a few weeks the only moths I see now are the dead ones stuck to the inside of the traps. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/07/how-to-get-rid-of-hideous-pant.html

Via Futility Closet:

Editorial guidelines from Spicy Detective magazine, 1935:

In describing breasts of a female character, avoid anatomical descriptions. If it is necessary for the story to have the girl give herself to a man, or be taken by him, do not go too carefully into details. … Whenever possible, avoid complete nudity of the female characters. You can have a girl strip to her underwear or transparent negligee or nightgown, or the thin torn shred of her garments, but while the girl is alive and in contact with a man, we do not want complete nudity. A nude female corpse is allowable, of course. Also a girl undressing in the privacy of her own room, but when men are in the action try to keep at least a shred of something on the girls. Do not have men in underwear in scenes with women, and no nude men at all.

“The idea is to have a very strong sex element in these stories without anything that might be interpreted as being vulgar or obscene.”

(From Nicholas Parsons, The Book of Literary Lists, 1987.)

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/07/editorial-guidelines-from-spic.html